The Crimson Tide. Robert W. Chambers
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very frank,” he said. “We’re supposed to rejoice, you know.”
“Oh, of course. I really do rejoice–––”
They both laughed.
“I mean it,” she insisted. “In my sober senses I am glad the war is over. I’d be a monster if I were not glad. But––what is going to take its place? Because we must have something, you know. One can’t endure a perfect void, can one?”
Again they laughed.
“It was such a tremendous thing,” she explained. “I did want to be part of it before it ended. But of course peace is a tremendous thing, too–––”
And they both laughed once more.
“Anybody overhearing us,” she confided to him, “would think us mere beasts. Of course you are glad the war is ended: that’s why you fought. And I’m glad, too. And I’m going to rent a house in New York and find something to occupy this void I speak of. But isn’t it nice that I should come to you about it?”
“Jolly,” he said. “And now at last I’m going to learn your name.”
“Oh. Don’t you know it?”
“I wanted to ask you, but there seemed to be no proper opportunity–––”
“Of course. I remember. There seemed to be no reason.”
“I was sorry afterward,” he ventured.
That amused her. “You weren’t really sorry, were you?”
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“I really was. I thought of you–––”
“Do you mean to say you remembered me after the ship docked?”
“Yes. But I’m very sure you instantly forgot me.”
“I certainly did!” she admitted, still much amused at the idea. “One doesn’t remember everybody one sees, you know,” she went on frankly,“––particularly after a horrid voyage and when one’s head is full of exciting plans. Alas! those wonderful plans of mine!––the stuff that dreams are made of. And here I am asking you kindly to find me a modest house with a modest rental. … And by the way,” she added demurely, “my name is Palla Dumont.”
“Thank you,” he said smilingly. “Do you care to know mine?”
“I know it. When I came in and told the clerk what I wanted, he said I should see Mr. Shotwell.”
“James Shotwell, Jr.,” he said gravely.
“That is amiable. You don’t treasure malice, do you? I might merely have known you as Mr. Shotwell. And you generously reveal all from James to Junior.”
They were laughing again. Mr. Sharrow noticed them from his private office and congratulated himself on having Shotwell in his employment.
“When may I see a house?” inquired Palla, settling her black-gloved hands in her black fox muff.
“Immediately, if you like.”
“How wonderful!”
He took out his note-book, glanced through several pages, asked her carelessly what rent she cared to pay, made a note of it, and resumed his study of the note-book.
“The East Side?” he inquired, glancing at her with curiosity not entirely professional.
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“I prefer it.”
From his note-book he read to her the descriptions and situations of several twenty-foot houses in the zone between Fifth and Third Avenues.
“Shall we go to see some of them, Mr. Shotwell? Have you, perhaps, time this morning?”
“I’m delighted,” he said. Which, far from straining truth, perhaps restrained it.
So he got his hat and overcoat, and they went out together into the winter sunshine.
Angelo Puma, seated in a taxi across the street, observed them. He wore a gardenia in his lapel. He might have followed Palla had she emerged alone from the offices of Sharrow & Co.
Shotwell Junior had a jolly morning of it. And, if the routine proved a trifle monotonous, Palla, too, appeared to amuse herself.
She inspected various types of houses, expensive and inexpensive, modern and out of date, well built and well kept and “jerry-built” and dirty.
Prices and rents painfully surprised her, and she gave up any idea of renting a furnished house, and so informed Shotwell.
So they restricted their inspection to three-story unfurnished and untenanted houses, where the neighbourhood was less pretentious and there was a better light in the rear.
But they all were dirty, neglected, out of repair, destitute of decent plumbing and electricity.
On the second floor of one of these Palla stood, discouraged, perplexed, gazing absently out, across a filthy back yard full of seedling ailanthus trees and rubbish, at the rear fire escapes on the tenements beyond.
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Shotwell, exploring the closely written pages of his note-book, could discover nothing desirable within the terms she was willing to make.
“There’s one house on our books,” he said at last, “which came in only yesterday. I haven’t had time to look at it. I don’t even know where the keys are. But if you’re not too tired–––”
Palla gave him one of her characteristic direct looks:
“I’m not too tired, but I’m starved. I could go after lunch.”
“Fine!” he said. “I’m hungry, too! Shall we go to Delmonico’s?”
The girl seemed a trifle nonplussed. She had not supposed that luncheon with clients was included in a real estate transaction.
She was not embarrassed, nor did the suggestion seem impertinent. But she said:
“I had expected to lunch at the hotel.”
He reddened a little. Guilt shows its colors.
“Had you rather?” he asked.
“Why, no. I’d rather lunch with you at Delmonico’s and talk houses.” And, a little amused at this young man’s transparent guile, she added: “I think it would be very agreeable for us to lunch together.”
She came from the dressing-room fresh and flushed as a slightly chilled rose, rejoining him in the lobby, and presently they were seated in the palm room with a discreet and hidden orchestra playing, “Oh! How I Hate To Get Up in the Morning,” and rather busy with a golden Casaba melon between them.
“Isn’t this jolly!” he said, expanding easily, as do all young men in the warmth of the informal.
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“Very. What an agreeable business yours seems to be, Mr. Shotwell.”
“In what way?” he asked innocently.
“Why, part of it is lunching with feminine clients, isn’t it?”
His close-set ears burned. She glanced up with mischief brilliant in her brown eyes. But he was busy with his melon. And, not looking at her:
“Don’t you want to know me?” he asked so clumsily that she hesitated to snub so defenceless a male.
“I don’t know whether I wish to,” she replied, smiling slightly. “I hadn’t aspired to it; I hadn’t really considered it. I was thinking about renting a house.”
He said nothing, but, as the painful colour remained in his face, the girl decided to be